Paul elected to IGCA board

Paul Cooling has been elected to the International Garden Centre Association (IGCA) board replacing Sue Allen who is retiring from the role.

The Chairman of Coolings Nurseries has been a long-time supporter of the IGCA and his appointment continues the UK presence on the international board.

For further information, please click here.

Christmas comes early at garden centres

Garden centre customers started preparing for Christmas last month (September, 2013) with sales of festive products up on the same time last year according to our Barometer of Trade (BoT) results.

Christmas product sales were up 12.26% for the month as compared to September 2012. Seed and bulb sales were also up 9.75%.

For further information, please click here. 

Well done to our Ruxley Rose regional winners

We’ve recently announced the regional winners of our annual Ruxley Rose competition.

The Ruxley Rose award focuses on our members’ outdoor plant areas and recognises excellent quality and range of plants.

To find out who the winners were, please click here. 

EU proposal could be damaging to garden centres

We think a European Commission proposal regarding plants could be extremely damaging to garden centres if it is introduced.

The EU is proposing that new plants will require a scientific description and must be listed on an official register in order to be sold.

For further information, please click here.